October 1, 2008
Write on Wednesday – Moodling a la Ueland
This week Becca’s prompt asks:
How about you? Do you find yourself moving too fast through life? What’s your favorite way to moodle and make the mornin’ last? How does slowing down affect your creativity?
She quotes Barbara Ueland, a woman whose book If You Want to Write I happen to be reading at this moment. (Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I am Becca or she is me, and I am insane and don’t know that she is my alternate personality – we seem so often to be thinking about the same things.) Ueland says we should “moodle” more, meaning we should wander free in idleness more often, letting ourselves think and ponder. The Gotham Writer’s Workshop:Writing Fiction text talks about our need for “soft writing” time, where we don’t do anything but let our ideas roam through our heads.
And boy, do I resonate with those ideas. I always feel like I’m moving too fast, not taking the time to do things well because there’s always something else to do. I write fast, I eat fast, I clean fast, I sleep fast. . . . doing none of those things in a way that I can enjoy them. Hence, why I resigned my job and am, even now, trying to find ways to pare back the number of things I am responsible for. I need more moodling time.
My best moodling moments usually occur in places where there are few people or many people. On a hike in the Blue Ridge, I can simply wander, ponder, and get lost in body and mind. I don’t have to answer the phone or send an email or write a report. I can just be. The same thing happens for me in cities, like New York, where there are so many people and things going on around me that I can disappear into them, looking at what’s happening without getting wrapped up into it.
Sometimes my best idle moments are times when I can just sit still and look out over something – a mountain range, a river, my own backyard. I can sit and let the serenity of stillness seep over me, deepening my breathe, slowing my mind, allowing me to ease into my self. There are good moments.
When I slow down, I find my creative life coming to life in beautiful ways. I see connections forming – a student’s poem to my own book, a comment about a scarf made from circles linking into the braided form of my own essay, a song lyric (Paul Simon, Ellis Paul, Jonatha Brooke, Missy Higgins) weaving into my words in ways I don’t even realize consciously. Here in this idleness is the real essence of life – the what is and the why of our existence.
When I rush, when I hurry, I miss this; I miss everything, really.
– “Lake Sprites and Sunbeams” by D L Ennis
Last night, I heard journalist Tom Horton and photojournalist Dave Harp speak – they were both wonderful and inspiring, making me want to appreciate the Chesapeake Bay while I still live near it. Dave said that at this time of year you can expect the water to give us mist because of the temperature difference between air and water – and here, D L has caught this beautiful image. Just one of those connections we find when stop to see them.
Filed by Andi at 5:56 am under Uncategorized
7 Comments
Slowing down has its moments, and taking time to just do nothing is sometimes even better, but really, what sort of a word is ‘moodle’? It sounds like some sort of strange cow-dog hybrid.
“I always feel like I’m moving too fast, not taking the time to do things well because there’s always something else to do. I write fast, I eat fast, I clean fast, I sleep fast. . . . doing none of those things in a way that I can enjoy them.”
That’s me, Andi. I think you and I may be alter-ego’s.
And this is SO me…”Sometimes my best idle moments are times when I can just sit still and look out over something – a mountain range, a river, my own backyard. I can sit and let the serenity of stillness seep over me, deepening my breathe, slowing my mind, allowing me to ease into my self.”
Groovy
What a great picture! The woods, the lakes, the mountains help me, too. Living in Chicago, I don’t get a big dose of peace in that way. But, I like what you said about getting lost with all the people around. Sometimes, you just have to phase them out. Not meant as unloving as that sounds, of course.
When on a vacation, I moodle as much as I an. Otherwise not much.
How groovy an you get?
Sounds like you have wonderful opportunities in your busy life, to be deeply inspired by other people and places. How perfect.
Bonnie
Nice. Wish I could have attended the event about the Chesapeake. I spent my teen summers there, on the water.
i haven’t been by for a while, and mentioned you on my blog today because I was writing about writing, and you had been reading Natalie Goldberg’s new book last spring. So I come by after I post, to find that gorgeous picture of the mist, and you are writing about exactly what I am finding out – by moving too fast, I don’t let life sink into me. I always find inspiration when I come to your blog! I’ve read the Brenda Ueland book – it’s on my shelf by here, which means I’ve moved it down to reread soon – and I forget to moodle, but at the back of my mind I’ve been becoming aware I haven’t let myself drift, much, either, which I need. It is so hard finding a balance between making a living, and living a life, isn’t it? So thank you for this post, and reminding me, reminding us to slow down!! Oh – and slowing down always makes me much more creative, because I am taking time to let my real self out, and that’s what is within me. I think when we move to fast, we are shutting out what we don’t want to hear, too.
thanks, Andi, and hope you are finding more and more moodling time as fall deepens.